Ian

Clark

Clark was one of the more talented free agents guards still on the market. He appeared in 60 games for the Pelicans last season and averaged 6.7 points and 1.6 assists in 16.2 minutes per game.

Wow. Clark is rolling for the Pelicans and getting progressively better, scoring 11 points on March 31, 17 points on April 3, 24 points on April 5, and 31 points tonight. His career high is 36, which he scored against the Spurs a little over a year ago. He gets a revenge game against the Warriors to finish out his season on Tuesday and neither team has anything to play for. For all intents and purposes, Clark should go bonkers in Tuesday’s finale.

It’s the most points he’s scored in a Pelicans uniform and he saw all the minutes he could handle with the Pelicans only having three traditional guards active. Clark gets two great matchups to finish the season with a date in Sacramento and a revenge game in Oakland to close out the season. He’s an option for those seeking points and treys.

He’s being ruled out far in advance of this game, which suggests he might be done for the season. Elfrid Payton continues to start at PG and guys like Ian Clark, Stanley Johnson and Dairis Bertans will pick up extra playing time with Jackson out of the lineup.

Clark was also just 5-of-15 from the field, and he failed to bring any defensive statistics to the box score, so he did much more damage than good in this one. He’s started over the past two games because Frank Jackson has been out with a concussion, but he hasn’t made much noise in the starting unit, and he could head back to the bench on Wednesday if Jackson is cleared to play. Leave him on the wire.

His shot was not falling, so it’ll be very tough for him to produce when that’s not happening. Frank Jackson (concussion) is likely out for more time, so Clark could be a stream play when the Pelicans are playing. Their schedule is not good enough to add him, though.

Jackson was cruising for the Pelicans and his absence leaves 30+ minutes up for grabs in the backcourt. Clark should assume most of them, making him a decent short-term target until Jackson returns, while guys like Stanley Johnson and Darius Miller will also pick up extra playing time.

He was 3-of-9 from the field and 4-of-4 from the line, and he’s suddenly on the radar with Jrue Holiday out for the season and with Frank Jackson suffering a concussion after dropping 20 points in 25 minutes tonight. However, the Pelicans only play two more times this week and Clark isn’t an exciting fantasy producer with per-36 averages of 13.6 points, 3.6 assists, 3.4 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 2.1 triples. He’s just someone to monitor in deeper leagues as a possible streamer.

The Pelicans backcourt will be extremely thin on Tuesday if Payton is forced to join Jrue Holiday (abdominal strain) and E’Twaun Moore (quad) on the sidelines. Ian Clark would likely get the start, and he could be someone to think about as a deep league streamer or DFS punt play. Payton owners can expect to get another update following Tuesday’s shootaround.

He had played just 14 minutes in his previous two games, but he was still able to hit double-digit scoring in each of those. Clark’s minutes went up because of garbage time, so the playing time is misleading. Leave him on the wire unless the Pelicans start holding more players out.